Picturing London

Please enjoy my last assignment: a photo book of my time in London!

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Home Again

    The toilets in Ireland are the worst.  There are two kinds: those that flush, then take about 10 minutes to refill the tank, and those that don’t flush.  Besides the notorious roads, this is really all I can complain about in Ireland.  While I preferred the countryside, the cities we passed through were fairly clean and friendly.  Plus, the ancient castles were amazing; the weather was beautiful (this amazed our tour guides); the countryside was gorgeous; and the sheep were fairly well behaved.  We started and finished in Dublin, and along the way we stopped in Cong (where John Wayne filmed “The Quiet Man”), Kylemore Abbey, Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Dunguaire Castle, Annascaul, Dingle, Kilarney, Cork, Blarney (as in the Blarney Stone), Cahir, then back to Dublin, and all the beautiful landscape in between.

Mom and Dad at Kylemore Abbey

  Halfway through we switched buses and drivers.  Martin was as excellent a guide as Barry, but the bus was even larger than our last, if it can be believed.  Scary stuff on those roads.  We joined another tour that was partway through a 6 day trip, and it was full of Aussies.  They weren’t even all together; there were at least 4 different groups of Australians on the one bus.  All excessively good-natured and ridiculously good-looking.  I’m afraid my parents and I were the fuddy-duddies of the group.  When we stopped each night and settled in to our lodgings we ate dinner then called it a night while everyone else headed out to the pub.

Our favorite B&B, Inspiration Lodge in Annascaul

I really think one can’t fully appreciate a tour through Ireland if one doesn’t enjoy drinking alcohol to excess.  Our guide, while introducing one small coastal town, called it “a wee drinking village with a fishing problem.”  All in good fun, of course.

A beautiful view at the Cliffs of Moher

  Overall, I think I enjoyed the beautiful views the most.  And even though I took many, many pictures, I don’t think I got any that did those views justice.  I guess you’ll all just have to visit Ireland yourselves to find out what I mean.

  It’s certainly been an adjustment being back in the US.  Not just the time difference, but being out in rural NH is a big change from central London.  Also, I’m afraid I keep thinking people are driving on the wrong side of the road, which is a problem.  I am glad to be back among my family and friends, and to get back into my routine.  But I hope you will all follow me on my blog again when I’m back in London someday.

Cheers!

Lions of London: A Prezi-tation

Though the "explore London" part of my summer is over, I'm still finishing up a few more assignments before the class portion is done.  Please enjoy my Prezi on the history of the lion in England, and the many places you might see it represented around the city of London.

(It's best to go through the Prezi using the right arrow at the bottom, not the autoplay.)

Lions of London on Prezi

Ireland: The Tour(ism) Begins

  Well, my friends, my adventure comes to a close.  I finally made it home on Monday night, tired but better for my travels, and then promptly did nothing on Tuesday.  Now I’m rested and ready to fill you in on my trip since I left London.

   After bidding a sorrowful goodbye to my flatmates, I caught the train from Euston Station to Holyhead Port, which is on the west coast of England.  From there I was herded onto a huge ferry, which was more like a cruise ship than what comes to mind when I hear “ferry.”  What surprised me was the lack of security.  Here I am expecting to go through the pre-flight gauntlet of checkpoints:  I’ve got my passport out, I’ve got two other forms of ID at the ready just in case, I’ve got shoes that are easy to take off to go through the scanner . . . but the officials wanted none of it.   Just my ticket, thank you very much, and what’s your name?  She didn’t even check any IDs.  My backpack had to go through a scanner, but I didn’t.  OK, I think, they’re just a bit more relaxed about this than I'm used to.   So I join a crowd of other people sitting in the waiting room and wait for them to call my ferry over the PA system.  Instead, a man in a reflective vest walks through the room and says “Would you all like to follow me now, please?”  then leads us all onto busses to be transported out to the ferry.  And no one checked my boarding pass.  It all went very smoothly and was very easy, but I’m afraid I’m a bit suspicious of too easy and it left me disoriented (or “disorientated” as one of our Irish hosts said).  Anyway, despite my misgivings we made it safely to port and I managed to get myself to Dublin centre where I found my parents, who had arrived earlier in the day.  It was a joyous reunion capped by a lovely dinner in the pub attached to the hotel.  O’Shea’s gave me a perfectly adequate room and I was expecting to sleep well that night after all the traveling.  But, alas, I found this a bit difficult for when I had just laid down mine head upon the pillow the live music started up just below me.  It was wonderful music, to be sure, but a bit loud for sleeping.  Ireland, whatcha gonna do?

    Well, we started off early the next morning on our Paddywagon bus tour with our driver/tour guide Barry. 

Our very discreet bus.

He was quite funny and really knew his Irish history, but are you aware of how narrow the roads are in Ireland?  Or of how close the vehicles pass each other on the road?  I’m here to tell you:  very narrow, and very close.  I am truly shocked that we didn’t scrape the side of the bus, at least, not to mention hit another car, careen off the side of a cliff, or hit any of the sheep that cross the country roads willy-nilly.  There were moments when I thought any or all of those would happen.  I had to keep reminding myself that the driver was very experienced at his job and that he didn’t want to die any more than I did. It was distressing but, after all, I am here to tell you the tale of our harrowing journey.  And for those of you who are acquainted with my mother, you’ll understand that if I was a bit nervy about the driving, she deserves a medal for not having a nervous breakdown.  Despite some scary moments on the roads, we had a great time and saw some gorgeous landscapes.

 So I’ll leave you for now with this little teaser, and will post again soon about the places we saw, the people we met, and (for my sister Michelle) the food that we ate.